Whydah Pirate Museum set for June opening in Yarmouth

Tuesday

May 10, 2016 at 5:00 AM

Undersea archaeological explorer Barry Clifford has big plans for the new Whydah Pirate Museum, currently being built with a planned opening early this summer.

The new museum, located in the old ZooQuarium building on Route 28 in West Yarmouth, will be a unique blend of exhibition, education, interaction, and research, offering visitors the chance to learn about life aboard the Whydah, and watch live as experts uncover the secrets of the only authenticated pirate shipwreck ever discovered. The Yarmouth business community welcomes the museum as another attraction along the town's main tourist route. Educators and their students may also benefit.

“We hope to have it open by the end of June,” said Clifford, as construction crews continued the extensive refitting of the building necessary for his ambitious plans. “You should’ve seen it a few months ago, it was a wreck.”

The museum’s main hall will provide a permanent home for the exhibit “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship,” which has toured museums across the country since 2007. The exhibit features a scale reproduction of a section of the ship visitors can board and explore, narratives telling the stories of the Whydah itself and members of its motley crew, and over 200 artifacts recovered from the wreck since its discovery by Clifford off the coast of Wellfleet in 1984, including cannons, pistols, swords, the anchor, the bell inscribed with the Whydah’s name that enabled the ship’s identity to be officially verified, and of course a priceless hoard of pirate treasure, in the form of coins, jewelry, and miscellaneous items plundered from the dozens of ships the Whydah attacked during its brief but active time under the command of Captain Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy.

“They robbed 54 ships, so the cross section of cultures is amazing,” Clifford said. Since no other authenticated pirate ship from the century or so referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy has ever been located, every artifact Clifford’s team recovers provides historians and visitors with an invaluable glimpse into the fabled era. “The only pirate treasure in the world, period,” said Clifford. “There’s no other pirate treasure in the world.”

The imminent arrival of that material is one reason work has proceeded quickly at the new location, acquired in February. “All of our exhibits will be moved in here in the next three weeks,” Clifford said. “We have nine tracker trailer loads coming up from Georgia.”

Meanwhile, work will continue on a smaller space on one side of the building, once used for aquatic animal displays and performances. While a pool in this section had to be filled in, several large water tanks, and the room’s stadium seating, will remain, allowing for the museum’s most unique attraction.

“Basically this is a wet storage area for artifacts,” Clifford said of the tanks. “We’ve got really large sections of the ship and large concretions we’ll be moving in here.” Those concretions—slabs of various objects fused together during centuries underwater—will be examined and pulled apart in the same room, with guests present to watch the emergence of artifacts last seen by human eyes in 1717.

“We’ll be taking all of these things apart, and we have thousands and thousands and thousands of artifacts,” Clifford said. “We have tons and tons of concretions. So anyone who’s ever dreamt of finding pirate treasure, or seeing it, can watch it here at the museum.”

The scientists performing the work will be equipped with wearable cameras, giving visitors a first-person view of the artifacts as they emerge, projected larger than life. “Archaeologists will be wearing GoPros, and that will go up on a screen,” Clifford said. “The only pirate treasure in the world, and it’s going to be coming to light right here.”

Refurbishing the building in the ambitious timeframe Clifford has in mind has been no easy feat. “The old ZooQuarium that used to be here left a ton of stuff,” said J. Scott Cimeno, president of CIMCO Construction Company, the firm handling the project. “It’s been tough. This is not going to be a long dragged-out process, but it’s been tough.”

Besides filling in the pool and adding fiberglass lining to the water tanks, workers have had to break down and remove numerous animal cages left by the previous occupant, install new floors and electric service, plumbing, and HVAC systems, plus add museum-quality shelving and lighting. The installation of the replica Whydah amounts to its own subproject. “We’ll be reassembling that, and putting up ramps and walkways,” said Cimeno. “It’s quite involved.”

But Cimeno said the rewards of the project will go far beyond the monetary. “It’s going to be beautiful when it’s done,” he said. “It’s very exciting, this is going to be a very exciting place. I’m just happy to be part of it.”

The Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce is also looking forward to the unique attraction’s opening. “The chamber is thrilled to welcome Barry Clifford and the museum here to Yarmouth,” said Executive Director Mary Vilbon. “We think it’s going to be a huge addition to the community, and definitely a destination where people will want to go.”

Vilbon sees the museum as both a tourist draw and a resource for locals. “The passion that Barry has on this project about teaching people, and letting them see the artifacts they’ve been able to locate right here off Cape Cod, it’s impressive,” she said. “Then when you hear the stories behind it, it’s fascinating.”

Vilbon said she’s perhaps most intrigued by the live archaeology Clifford plans to present. “How many places can you go to and experience something like that? I can’t wait to go.”

Clifford said he has been welcomed by local government as well. “The town’s been incredible to work with, they’ve been very supportive, they see it as a great educational opportunity.”

In the lectures Clifford himself plans to give, he will encourage kids to take a second look at artifacts and objects in their daily lives they may think they already understand, a habit that he developed early in life himself, and has found invaluable ever since. “It’s not what you find, it’s what you find out,” he said. “That’s a great lesson for kids, it teaches them to think creatively.”

Clifford hopes the museum will serve a more practical purpose as well, helping to fund the preservation of the massive haul of artifacts recovered from the Whydah in years past, and during future dives, like the one planned for this summer. “This is going to enable us to preserve the rest of the collection,” he said, reiterating a vow made years ago. “We’re not ever going to sell any of it.”